The Jews undoubtedly learned this doctrine after they had been subdued by, and become acquainted with other nations; and the writer of this story, whoever he may have been, was evidently endeavoring to strengthen the belief in this doctrine--he being an advocate of it--by inventing this story, _and making Jacob a witness to the truth of it_. Jacob would have been looked upon at the time the story was written (_i. e._, after the Babylonian captivity), as of great authority. We know that several writers of portions of the Old Testament have written for similar purposes. As an illustration, we may mention the book of _Esther_. This book was written for the purpose of explaining the origin of the festival of _Purim_, and _to encourage the Israelites to adopt it_. The writer, _who was an advocate of the feast_, lived long after the Babylonish captivity, and is quite unknown.[44:1]
The writer of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew has made Jesus a teacher of the doctrine of Transmigration.
The Lord had promised that he would send Elijah (Elias) the prophet, "before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord,"[44:2] and Jesus is made to say that he had already come, or, _that his soul had transmigrated unto the body of John the Baptist_, and they knew it not.[44:3]
And in Mark (viii. 27) we are told that Jesus asked his disciples, saying unto them; "Whom do men say that _I_ am?" whereupon they answer: "Some say Elias; and others, one of the prophets;" or, in other words, that the soul of Elias, or one of the prophets, had transmigrated into the body of Jesus. In John (ix. 1, 2), we are told that Jesus and his disciples seeing a man "_which was blind from his birth_," the disciples asked him, saying; "Master, who did sin, _this man_ (in some former state) or his parents." Being _born_ blind, how else could he sin, _unless in some former state_? These passages result from the fact, which we have already noticed, that some of the Jewish and Christian sects believed in the doctrine of Metempsychosis.
According to some Jewish authors, _Adam_ was re-produced in _Noah_, _Elijah_, and other Bible celebrities.[44:4]
"Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, might in outward appearance be _different_ men, but they were really the _self-same_ divine persons who had been promised as the seed of the woman, successively animating various human bodies."[44:5]